


Cold River

by Bitterblue



Series: Awakenings [1]
Category: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix, Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Orphan Black AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 20:20:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1756163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitterblue/pseuds/Bitterblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Perhaps Death is not the place to be lost in thought, she chides herself, and takes another step. Delphine as the Abhorsen. One shot. Probably.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold River

**Author's Note:**

> Hahaha pun title.

The river is cold and silent around her ankles as Delphine takes one tentative step, and then a bolder second. There are no hands reaching to grab her, to drown her in the endless, still water. Hurried warnings still ring in her ears, delivered inexplicably from a feline face. He had been all cold, curious eyes and purred rhotics. She questions her sanity about trusting a talking cat.

She questions a lot of things in the past week.

 _Perhaps Death is not the place to be lost in thought_ , she chides herself, and takes another step. The cold is seeping into her, but not the wet.  _Water is an illusion. A metaphor_. It reminds her of being small and getting snow inside of her boots, that cursory moment of biting chill before the melt could soak her socks, stretched and elongated. How long has she been here? She mustn't stand still. Standing still is dangerous. She takes another step.

Out of the corner of her eye, she catches sight of something different than the endless murk, moving at great speed toward--no. Away. Away from her. Hurrying away. There is something lighter, something human caught within monstrous shadow arms. Delphine gives chase, as quick as she can without slipping.

As she closes in, she can be sure of it now: this is why she is here. It would be impossible to mistake that face when she has seen so much of it the past week, always twisted into a smile during rushed explanations that Delphine is quite sure she has mostly forgotten in the shock of the rest.  _It is good she is still herself; she cannot have been here long._ She instinctively reaches for a bell, pulling it from the bandolier. The river is silent.  _Do not ring any bells unless you must. It will alert everything else to your presence._  She is absurdly grateful for all of the fencing lessons she was forced into at school, sword ready in her other hand.

"Give her back. You cannot have her." It sounds shaky and weak to her own ears, but the shadow thing does pause, half turning to look at her. She does not shrink. She wants to. Where eyes should be are flames, deep pits of them, its face a haze of smoke and darkness. It makes a grumbling noise that filters through her ears as pain. She thinks it might be laughing.

"You don't know what you're even doing," it says, grip still tight on the girl in its arms.

The sound of the bell is clear and bright. Delphine can feel every other thing take notice of her suddenly, most scrambling away before she can focus her will upon them, as well. She hopes it was the right bell.  _I should have been paying more attention to the words and less to the mouth delivering them._

"Give her to me."

The shadow monster contorts, fighting the compulsion, and the spirit-girl in its arms stirs for the first time. Her eyes blink open, squinting, and find Delphine's.

"Let the girl go and I will not send you through the Ninth Gate." The echos of the bell are still in her ears, a thrum of power unlike any she has felt before. The shadow thing slowly, painfully collapses in on itself, until the girl is standing on unsure feet in the river and it is hurrying away. Delphine quickly slides the bell home, clapper secured, and takes her hand. She tugs them as quickly as they can slush through the water, heedless of the noise they make now. Anything that cares to would know precisely where they are.

"I didn't think you'd come after me," the girl whispers as Delphine finds the final thread of herself and tugs them back into their own bodies.  _How could I not_ _?_  she thinks, blinking frost from her eyelashes and watching stiff, frozen lips twist themselves into a smile in the glittering firelight.


End file.
